The Process In Tarot Readings

[RunningWild]

Nearly two years ago, elsewhere online, I had given an individual a reading that they felt was fairly accurate.  I sometimes offer free readings in a chatroom environment with the understanding that for me to do so, the individuals must give feedback in the chatroom in return.  I do that so that others can learn the cards.  Also, there are witnesses!  😄  That same individual sat through a couple of other readings and as the room was slowing down asked me a question that caught me off guard,  "What is your process in reading the cards?"

 

I didn't have a video camera at the time.  Everything was done via voice and text.  If they could have seen me they would have recognized that deer caught in the headlights look.

 

I asked them if they meant what kind of spread I was using, or which deck, or how I chose which deck to use.  I asked if they were referring to ritual.  No, no, that wasn't it, the process is what they wanted to know about.  My brain usually runs linearly and logically.  Tarot forces me to "think outside the box."  So, I laughed and asked if they thought I could create a Venn diagram for it.

 

After some discussion, the answer was clear as mud and so I made a promise that if I ever got back on my feet, I'd get a good video cam and mic, a proper internet connection so I could upload, and I'd create a channel over on youtube for everyone to see. 

 

It took me two years to get to this point but I'm still stuck on the whole "What is your process?" question. 

 

I'm curious to see if anyone else has ever been asked that question and if so, how they answered it.

 

.

[katrinka]

No. I think it's a great question, though! If only because it doesn't get a lot of conscious thought, but it's important.
Umm...let's see: Formulate the question. Shuffle, cut, lay cards.
Look at the cards. Does anything stand out? The prepoderance of a certain suit? Courts? Majors? Are there multiples, for example, several Aces?

Comb through the cards one by one. Book meanings + visuals, like which way the figures face.
With TdM, there are things like color pooling to consider. With Thoth, there's the paths (which I stink at, but one learns by doing.)
Elemental dignities are something I've known about forever but only recently added. (Thank you, @timtoldrum) They do help a lot, and can help make sense of things that look "wrong".
That's about all I can think of. 
It's work sometimes. Other times I just lay the cards and there's an instant "AHA!"
 

[Guest]

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Edited February 14, 2021 by Guest

[gregory]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

No. I think it's a great question, though! If only because it doesn't get a lot of conscious thought, but it's important.
Umm...let's see: Formulate the question. Shuffle, cut, lay cards.
Look at the cards. Does anything stand out? The preponderance of a certain suit? Courts? Majors? Are there multiples, for example, several Aces?

Comb through the cards one by one. Book meanings + visuals, like which way the figures face.
With TdM, there are things like color pooling to consider. With Thoth, there's the paths (which I stink at, but one learns by doing.)
Elemental dignities are something I've known about forever but only recently added. (Thank you, @timtoldrum) They do help a lot, and can help make sense of things that look "wrong".
That's about all I can think of. 
It's work sometimes. Other times I just lay the cards and there's an instant "AHA!"

 

Yes- a GREAT question. That I also cannot answer.

 

The last line of katrinka's resonates though.

 

I do have an EXCELLENT "cheat sheet" that Barbara Moore put together that I can use when stuck - looking for preponderances and the like.

 

This question is a lot like "how does tarot work..."

 

The answer to which is "Umm, thinkng about that..."

[TheLoracular]

That really is a great question.

I  also like Katrinka's answer.
 

I put some thought into what holds true for my 2020 process regardless if I'm reading for myself or someone else.  This isn't recommended just what I know I do out of habit and to help myself because of some memory/focus issues.   I have my journal and a deck out.  I have a visual reference for the spread I'm going to use that includes in print what type of information each positional is going to provide.  

1) I re-read or repeat the question out loud as I shuffle and shuffle until the cards have a certain "feel" in my hand.  Sometimes that's longer than others. 

2) I repeat out loud what each piece of information each part of the spread is going to provide as I lay them all face down.

3) I turn the cards over one-by-one and give a short immediate response of some kind for each one building on the others that are up.  The responses are really conditional and I wouldn't be able to say why I give certain ones in certain readings, just I say something regarding each card as I flip it that starts the reading but doesn't go in depth.

4) Once all of them are face up, I look at all the pictures and start putting together a more comprehensive answer based on all kinds of factors.  Again, a lot of that is conditional, especially based on who the querent is.  If the querent is just me?  I get a lot more esoteric and might pull out a specific book or webpage to research/confirm something that catches my eye and seems relevant.   

I know I try to speak the querent's own language and what deck I use, what spread I use, what words I use as the querent/me talk is meant to be as helpful to them as possible.  For example, if a querent has decision paralysis and doesn't want to pick a deck themselves or they aren't sure what they want to ask or word things really vaguely?  I make suggestions and simplify it down for them without being patronizing (I hope I'm never patronizing!!)

Edited February 14, 2021 by TheLoracular

[blue_crow_laura]

Both @Katrinka and @Loracular gave answers that seem very familiar to me too. Once the question's formulated and the cards are laid out, it's sort of a process of working "large to small" for me. It's like making a painting!

 

1. First I look for the largest patterns. Preponderance of suit or element? Color or shape or pictorial patterns? Lots of Majors? Lots of gendered images? Things like that. I can't say which I look for first, because the largest, most distinct patterns aren't always in the same category, if that makes sense. Sometimes there's a big pattern in something traditional, like the suits, and sometimes it's something non-traditional, like an abundance of spiral shapes in the imagery. Sometimes it's even conceptual or verbal, like a preponderance of cards that indicate "laughter" or "instability." It just depends. This step will give me the overall theme.

 

2. Then I'll move to smaller patterns within the larger pattern, finding links and contradictions based on the reading position and the book meanings. Depending on what's needed for the reading, I can slice this part finer and finer using all the layers of Tarot symbolism I can remember at the time: astrology, numerology, Qabalah, calendar timing, what have you.

 

Writing it down, it seems so nebulous and hard to describe! Doing it is much more straightforward...not that it's necessarily easy, but it's almost a "black box" brain thing. Put in the reading...[mysterious connecting stuff happens]...out comes the raw interpretation. The big job then seems to be interpreting the interpretation, if that makes any sense at all.

[katrinka]

8 hours ago, blue_crow_laura said:

Once the question's formulated and the cards are laid out, it's sort of a process of working "large to small" for me. It's like making a painting!

That's a really good analogy. It all starts with a big rough sketch, and goes stage by stage into finer details. 

[TheLoracular]

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

That's a really good analogy. It all starts with a big rough sketch, and goes stage by stage into finer details. 

Yes!!

[Anabiyeni]

21 hours ago, katrinka said:

On 2/14/2021 at 11:45 AM, blue_crow_laura said:

Once the question's formulated and the cards are laid out, it's sort of a process of working "large to small" for me. It's like making a painting!

That's a really good analogy. It all starts with a big rough sketch, and goes stage by stage into finer details. 

I think it's the opposite for me. I flip each card individually and look at the cards one by one, then I put them together like a puzzle, or elements in a fairytale. After looking at cards one by one, I may look at pairs (especially if the characters in the cards are facing each other) before looking at the spread as a whole.

 

If I look at a whole spread at once right at the beginning, I suffer from information overload and freeze up. I do a lot of 3-to-5 card spreads because larger spreads like the Celtic cross overwhelm me even when I start out looking at the cards one by one. 

 

Mostly I read for myself. Because my doctoral work is the most defining part of my identity right now, most readings are filtered through that lens, even when I deliberately try to ask about something else.

[RunningWild]

It's work sometimes. Other times I just lay the cards and there's an instant "AHA!"  @katrinka

 

On 2/14/2021 at 8:36 AM, gregory said:

This question is a lot like "how does tarot work..."

 

The answer to which is "Umm, thinkng about that..."

 

Or, "why does tarot work?"  

 

For me it's these sorts of things that stop me from explaining anything further because of that flash of a card from another deck, usually one that i haven't used in a while, that comes to my mind during a reading or what I refer to as "mini-movies" that decide to play in the middle of a sentence and sometimes redirect my focus in the reading and are part of the process that become difficult to explain.  I can imagine a question such as "But what triggered it?" after I tell them about that mini-movie and then I'm back to square one and the deer caught in the headlight look.

 

Thank you all for your replies, though.  I can always explain (and have explained) each card as I go along then form the big picture.  To me, that's the easy part.  The individual that posed the question to me wasn't interested in the easy part.  I bring the same question up time and again with the group of people I chat with online.